A Day in the Life of Alex on Vacation
Jun 27, 2023
Hey,
I hope you’re well! It’s Saturday morning and as Alex shared with you last Monday, we’re out for two weeks of rest, which truly was necessary for Alex – and for me too! For him to stay home for so many weeks in a row after a cardiac surgery, and to then travel to London and New York to meet with very important acquaintances, the time had come to get some ocean air for our souls to stop their daily routine for a little while.
Everything we planned on doing in our yearly meetings of last December went south, especially touring and recording-wise, but the great news is, everything we were dreaming of and hoping to see happen is slowly coming to life and this is something I’m so proud of and so glad about! Alex will share those news with you as soon as he can I’m sure! Stay tuned!!!!
I decided to share what a typical day can look like for Alex and I on a time off! I did this while listening to the new Sigur Rós album, ÁTTA! So good!!!
🕢 7:20
I receive a text asking: “Hey brother, you up?” (I set my alarm at 7h15 expecting a text to come at around that time. None of us are huge sleepers)
🕢 7:21
I answer: “Yes — of course…! Wanna go out for a walk?” (Alex needs to reach 10k steps a day)
🕢 7:21
Alex is knocking on my door saying his two favorite words in English: “Let’s go!” (I suspect he’s been texting me from the other side of the door — I need to catch him one of those days)
🕢 7:22
Here we are, walking by the ocean, breathing some fresh salted air, hearing the waves crashing on the beach and the birds looking for a great catch! No better way to start the day in my opinion!
🕢 7:25 - 8:30
We walk on the beach, always the same route where we have figured out which palm tree marks our halfway track and have to head back. Alex always starts our conversations around the messages he received from you, especially now around The Pain That Bonds vinyls that you have hopefully received at this point, and all the pictures and compliments you’re sending his way! We also talk a lot about what’s happening in the news, since there’s so much going on these days, and we always end this walk by talking about baseball.
🕣 8:30 - 10:00
We part ways and Alex starts reading the news and taking some news from the team at the label. He goes through every possible news there is available starting with what’s happening in Ukraine, to American politics, to every music and tech news, and then some sports in the end. I go for a 60-minute run while listening to a podcast. I like Broken Records, Tim Ferriss, The Prof G.
🕙 10:00 - 13:00
We’re sitting down at the same table with our iPads, doing some work, some follow-ups, some daily meeting stuff we need to take care of, and also making sure everything is running smoothly.
🕐 13:00 - 14:00
Lunchtime! Alex is a master at preparing plates mixing things you never thought would share the same plate space in your life! He’s a true artist in every possible way; every fiber of his body and mind is always crafting things and ideas, stunning everyone! I can’t even share an example, as I don’t know how to describe what he does and what’s in it. He then will ask if you can guess all of what’s in the plate and then he'll laugh until he cries! And this goes on and on every single time – it’s been like that for 20 years! I’m still amazed and fascinated by that! I don’t even want to send a picture! It’s a chaotic mess of pure nonsense, but at least, it tastes good!
🕑 14:00 - 15:00
Second walk by the sea! (Remember the 10k steps) We then talk more about our projects, what we want to do, where we’re at, the people we work with and so on! Alex’s mind truly is loaded with amazing ideas at this point, and he’s impatient to get back in the studio and to get ideas down for what will be his next project. We talk about it everyday. He has a meeting with a specialist for his voice on July 4, so he’s a little stressed about it, obviously! He also has a lot of traveling ideas on his mind in order to be as inspired as possible for the next album.
🕒 15:00 - 18:00
Alex is a morning routine person. Once he went through his daily mails and news, and he reached the point where he knows all of what’s happening in the world, the rest of the day can go in every possible direction! For instance, yesterday, we met a group of people, 25 Canadians from Vancouver, traveling for their friend’s bachelor party. Alex started talking with them and we had such a great time! They’re all from different ethnicities, from so many different Asian and African countries, all born outside of Canada, all university students, and now friends with whom we had the opportunity to meet and spend an unforgettable time talking and laughing! Amazing story! Typical Alex! We’re now real buddies and we’ll all meet up again at some point, I’m sure!!! From complete strangers to new friends! This is the story of our lives as we truly love to speak with strangers and most of the time end up in long-term friendships! You should try it if you’re not doing this already!
We can’t swim in the ocean as Alex is still healing and he can’t swim, but there’s a pool with a hot tub where we end up making loads of new friends every day! When there’s no one to talk to, Alex will take a nap or read a book. He’s reading The Art of the Straight Line by Lou Reed.
We can’t swim in the ocean as Alex is still healing and he can’t swim, but there’s a pool with a hot tub where we end up making loads of new friends every day! When there’s no one to talk to, Alex will take a nap or read a book. He’s reading The Art of the Straight Line by Lou Reed.
🕕 18:00 - 19:00
Third and last walk of the day! We need to reach the 10k, so there’s a lot of pressure on that last walk. (Alex has a watch which counts his steps, I’m sure he looks at it more than 10k times a day!)
🕖 19:00 - 20:00
We part ways and get ready for the evening. We like to dress up nicely, as who knows who we’re going to meet, spend time with, go out with… Even if we decide to watch the San Francisco Giants ball game or an old movie the TV has to offer, well at least, it will have been in grand style!
🕗 20:00 - 21:00
It’s time for my favorite hour of the day, the apéro as we say in French! (Shorter version of the word apéritif). We simply sit down at a table where we share some nice drinks and some delights, mainly some nuts, cheese, crackers and so on! Alex is now fine with having one glass of wine, so we sip it slowly and talk about different topics. During that hour, we’re always quite inspired and we love to go deep into real conversations. Alex shared with me the other day about a letter he wrote to me before his heart surgery, in case he would not survive it, and he started to share about parts of what was in it, which he had never done before. It was so deep, so beautiful, so inspiring, a true demonstration of our profound friendship! I was in Tangier during that time and I told him this was so hard for me not being around knowing what he was going through. We ended up hugging and making a very mini tiny second toast of wine, raising our glasses to our friendship and how we can now celebrate what’s ahead!
🕘 21:00 - 23:00
Dinner time! We have to eat those emotions, right!?! After a trashy-meets-artsy lunch, we like to eat a fancy dinner. Not necessarily pricey, but something legit and nice! I’m a foodie, and Alex isn’t at all. He only eats since he has to, but I’m the complete opposite: I don’t need to be hungry to enjoy something delightful and yummy! Those dinners are always loose, funny, and we like to get our minds into creating Big Fish stories about us, or our friends, or simply someone in the restaurant where we’re eating! We like to create stories, situations, conversations, and funny things we’d love to see happening. Sometimes, we go so deep into those stories that they stay alive, and at some point, it’s even kind of hard to know if it was real, if it was a dream or if we made this up! Alex’s mind is limitless and to see him laughing a lot is a true priceless delight I was hoping to see happen!
🕚 23:00 - 1:00 or more
We always watch the Giants at night when we can. Them being on the West Coast is perfect for us since it allows us to end our day watching our favorite sport! I can hear my friends from Europe saying that’s not a sport… Don’t get me started on that! :) We also watched the old Mad Max on TV, so funny! If this ain’t a real sport, I don’t know what is!
Thank you so much for reading my weekly letters! If you just joined The Club, all my past letters are available here and you can have access to free downloads here.
See you next week with more adventures! Let’s be great to one another!
Your Host and Friend,
Jeff
